Top Three Tips for Apartment Hunters

Next to securing food and water, finding a place to live and store that food and water is probably the most important priority a person can have. After all, your safety and well-being are directly dependent on being able to stay off the streets at night and out of the rain. Finding a place to live and finding the best place to live are two entirely different things, though, and both are certainly easier said than done. There are several things a prospective tenant must take into consideration when apartment hunting and when sizing up a potential home. Here are three useful tips for would-be renters when apartment hunting:

1. Live Within Your Means

One of the most important things to remember when apartment hunting is that the rent you see now will be the same rent you’ll be asked to pay half a year down the road. You may have money saved up now, but that money will dwindle away if the rent of the apartment ends up being too much for your income to sustain. Set a realistic budget early on in the apartment search based on the area you want to live in. For example, in Rapid City, South Dakota there are a lot of nice apartments in walking distance of all sorts of museums, restaurants, and theaters, but those apartments will cost more than apartments half a dozen blocks away. Also consider that more space means more cost; luxury apartments floor plans may have more space to accommodate more furniture or renters with a family to house, but is the extra space in your budget? Just as important as the question of if something is in your budget, you must ask yourself whether the rent will be in your budget a few months down the line. What other expenses are likely to crop up in that time? This may seem like a basic topic, but neglecting to pay it the attention it deserves could end up leaving you out in the cold.

2. Make Sure There’s Transportation

So say you’ve found a place in your budget that’s in a nice neighborhood. That’s all well and good, but is it in easy walking distance of your job? Is there a bus that runs near the apartment that goes near your work? If you don’t have a car, there had better be. It’s very important to make sure that the location of the prospective apartment is suitable for any commuting and transportation needs you may have now or at any time during your tenancy.

3. Check for Damage

Once you’ve found the perfectly priced, perfectly situated apartment, the final step is to take a tour through the place and carefully inspect all the walls, floor, ceilings, and other fixtures for any sort of damage. If you identify the damage before moving in, you won’t be obligated to fix any of it during your normal apartment maintainence or when you move out, so this is purely for your own protection. Normally good landlords will have identified damage beforehand, but you can never be too safe! What other tips do you have for new apartment renters?
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